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arXiv:cond-mat/9908160 · Physical Review A

Mach-Zehnder Bragg interferometer for a Bose-Einstein condensate

Yoshio Torii, Yoichi Suzuki, Mikio Kozuma, Toshiaki Sugiura, Takahiro Kuga, L. Deng, E. W. Hagley

Published Feb 28, 2000• 136 citations
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Abstract

We construct a Mach-Zehnder interferometer using Bose-Einstein condensed rubidium atoms and optical Bragg diffraction. In contrast to interferometers based on normal diffraction, where only a small percentage of the atoms contribute to the signal, our Bragg diffraction interferometer uses all the condensate atoms. The condensate coherence properties and high phase-space density result in an interference pattern of nearly 100% contrast. The two arms of the interferometer may be completely separated in space, making it an ideal tool that can be used to detect vortices or other topological condensate phases.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.61.041602

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We present a cold-atom gravimeter operating with a sample of Bose-condensed 87{}^{87}87Rb atoms. Using a Mach-Zehnder configuration with the two arms separated by a two-photon Bragg transition, we observe interference fringes with a visibility of ($83\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}6$)% at T=3T=3T=3 ms. We exploit large momentum transfer (LMT) beam splitting to increase the enclosed space-time area of the interferometer using higher-order Bragg transitions and Bloch oscillations. We also compare fringes from condensed and thermal sources and observe a reduced visibility of ($58\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}4$)% for the thermal source. We suspect the loss in visibility is caused partly by wave-front aberrations, to which the thermal source is more susceptible due to its larger transverse momentum spread. Finally, we discuss briefly the potential advantages of using a coherent atomic source for LMT, and we present a simple mean-field model to demonstrate that with currently available experimental parameters, interaction-induced dephasing will not limit the sensitivity of inertial measurements using freely falling, coherent atomic sources.
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